Video: Lola CEO Paul English Says Innovation Comes in Small Teams

Dennis Schaal, Skift

- Nov 22, 2016 7:00 am

Skift Take

There’s a lot of wisdom in this video. Find out why Lola CEO Paul English believes travel startups should get as close as possible to the booking instead of going out and trying to create what he calls the “blah blah blah of travel.”

— Dennis Schaal

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When it comes to innovation, little things mean the most.

That’s the view of Paul English, co-founder and CEO of travel agency messaging app Lola, who says, “Innovation happens with small teams. The way little companies like Kayak become big companies is you hire better teams and you out-innovate.”

English, who co-founded and was the chief technology officer of Kayak from 2004 to 2013, says big companies find it hard to innovate so they acquire startups to tap into their innovation.

English recalls that back in his Kayak days, he was negotiating a deal with America Online, which agreed to take a minority stake in Kayak in late 2004, about 11 months after Kayak launched.

English says AOL officials said they liked English and co-founder Steve Hafner, but asked why they should trust a few-months-old travel startup to launch a product together when larger players were competing for the deal.

“I said, ‘We don’t yet have the platform that Expedia has. But get Dara’s [Expedia CEO Khosrowshahi’s] 10 smartest people in the room and my smartest people in the room and then decide,'” English recalls.

“And I think startups, if they are great at recruiting can create special teams. And I think all innovation happens by forming special teams and it is easier done at a startup than at a big company.”

At this year’s Skift Global Forum in New York City, travel leaders from around the world gathered for two days of inspiration, information, and conversation for panels such as this as well as solo TED-like talks on the future of travel.